Various forages for livestock are available in the market. One of them is gliricidia tree fodder. Do you know what type of feed it is? Maybe for breeders, already familiar with the feed. But ordinary people may wonder. How about the tree, the leaves, to the processing to become food? To know more about this feed, see the explanation in this article.
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Glyricidia Definition
Gamal tree or in Latin Gliricidia sepium is used as animal feed because it contains high protein. It belongs to the legume species. Gamal comes from Central America and Brazil. But over time, this plant can grow and develop in the Asian region. Especially in India and Sri Lanka.
In India and Sri Lanka, this Gamal plant is used as a protector. Initially, this plant in its home country was used as a cover for cocoa or cocoa plants. This custom was carried over to other countries such as India.
The Gamal plant has a physical form with upright stems. Has a diameter between 5 to 30 cm. The shape of the leaves is oval with a length ranging from 4 to 8 cm. Between the leaves facing each other. Not only in the form of trees, this plant also produces fruit. The fruit produced is in the form of pods.
Young pods are green. While the old fruit will be brownish-yellow. Apart from fruit, Gamal also produces pink and reddish flowers.
Gliricidia Tree Fodder
As previously mentioned, Gamal or gliricidia plants can be used as animal feed. However, this plant has toxic substances for humans and animals. This does not apply to ruminant animals.
On the contrary, Gamal leaves have high protein and are very good for ruminants. Gliricidia tree fodder contains coumarin, which can cause odors that ruminants don’t like. In addition, coumarin also gives a bitter taste, so it can inhibit the blood clotting process.
Then how to overcome it? Because it contains high protein, of course, it would be a shame if this plant was not put to good use in the livestock sector. The existing coumarin content can be removed, by soaking or withering the plant. However, there are advantages behind the coumarin content. These compounds can be active drugs for scabies or scabies in your livestock.
Gliricidia Tree Fodder Nutrition
The use of animal feed from Gamal leaves is not without reason. This plant has some good nutritional content for ruminants. The nutrition in Gamal plants is 20% to 30% crude protein. In addition, this plant also has 15% crude fiber. Digestible nutrition from this Gamal plant is approximately 58.4% – 69.7%.
The complete composition of Gamal plant nutrition is as follows: 25.17% protein, 0.35% phosphorus, 8.8% ash, 2.9% fat, 2% calcium, 0.75% magnesium, 0.04 sodium %, and sulfur 0.01%. With these ingredients, gliricidia tree fodder is very suitable for ruminants.
Use of Gamal Leaves as Ruminant Animal Feed
The following is the reason for using Gamal leaves or plants for ruminant animal feed. As well as other important things related to the effect of feed on your farm animals.
- The part of the Gamal plant, namely the leaves, can be used as the main or mixed feed. This feed can be given to ruminant animals such as cows, goats, buffalo, and sheep.
- For Gamal leaves that are still fresh, have an aroma that livestock doesn’t like. especially for animals that have never eaten this leaf before. But there is a way to keep giving these leaves to livestock. namely by withering the leaves for approximately 24 hours before being given directly to livestock. Or you can also use this method of fermenting the leaves to become silage. This will also give the Gamal leaves durability if they don’t run out in one meal.
- Provide this feed but the availability is insufficient? There is a solution. Give this Gamal leaf feed every 3 days, or adjust it to the availability.
- The effect ruminants that are given Gamal leaf feed as much as 3-4 kg, will be able to maintain their body weight. This also applies to cows and buffaloes that are fed grass with low quality or commonly called rice straw.
- Based on research, feeding Gamal leaves as much as at least 20% of the total forage feed will increase the weight by 1.01 kg/head/day for ruminant cattle.
- Meanwhile, giving Gamal leaves to the lamb will increase the weaning weight of the lambs until the weaning process is complete.
Those are some important points about gliricidia tree fodder that many people might not know. After knowing the nutritional content of Gamal leaves, are you still unsure about giving this type of feed to your livestock, especially ruminants? This feeding has been proven to be very beneficial for the weight of ruminants. To preserve this type of feed, a fermentation process can be carried out first. Please try it on your ruminant livestock.